Language Milestones: School-Age Children

As your child grows, their understanding of language, use of language, and ability to use language to interact socially with family and friends will continue to expand and become more complex. It can often be difficult to know what language skills you should be looking and when you should expect them to be developed. The chart below outlines general milestones for language development in regards to receptive-language, expressive-language, and pragmatic-language.  If you have any concerns regarding your child’s language skills, please contact your speech-language pathologist.

Questions or concerns?

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s language development, please contact us at info@playworkschicago.com or 773-332-9439.

Claire Hacker MS, CCC-SLP
Speech Language Pathologist

Photo Credit: from Pixabay

Valentine’s Craft Ideas!

Valentine’s day is approaching, and love is in the air! Here are a few fun craft ideas for you to make with your littles while working on their language development!

Heart Man:

Supplies:

Red paper, white cardboard, black marker, googly eyes, scissors, glue

Instructions:

  1. Cut out one large heart and four small hearts from the red paper.
  2. Fold the white strips of paper like an accordion. Glue two strips for arms and two strips for legs.
  3. Create a face for your heart man! Glue two googly eyes and draw a mouth!

How to target language?

  1. Expressive language: Talk about body parts when making/gluing the eyes, mouth, legs, and arms.
  2. Receptive language: Following multi-step directions (e.g., “First, put on eyes, then draw mouth”).

Valentine Mailbox

Supplies:

Tissue box, wrapping paper, stickers, markers, candy and/or envelopes

Instructions:

  1. Cover the empty tissue box with wrapping paper.
  2. Decorate your tissue box with stickers, markers, pom poms, etc. Get creative!
  3. Deliver candy and/or Valentine’s cards to other mailboxes!

How to target language?

  1. Expressive language: practice “mail”-related vocabulary, such as card, send, mailman, mailbox, write, letter, and stamp
  2. Receptive language: understanding pronouns (e.g., “put the candy in her mailbox” or “put a card in theirmailbox”)
  3. Pragmatic language: role play social exchanges as you deliver letters to loved ones

Friendship Necklaces:

Supplies:

Craft foam, yarn, scissors, hole punch, beads

Instructions:

  1. Cut a small heart out of the craft foam.
  2. Punch a small hole into the top center of the heart.
  3. Thread a 2-3-foot piece of yarn through the hole.
  4. Add the beads of your choice and tie a knot on the top!

How to target language?

  1. Expressive language: using prepositions (e.g., “on the string,” “in the heart”)
  2. Receptive language: following directions to put different beads on the string

Jill Teitelbaum, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist

Speech and Language Opportunities on the Road

Looking for some ways to work on your child’s speech and language while in the car?

Stuck in gridlocked traffic is not fun, but you can make it a little more interesting by working on your child’s speech and language skills while in the car! Below are some easy ways to work on your child’s speech and language development that do not require a phone, iPad, or any physical toy. Reduce the noise in the car and tune into your child during your next drive!

12 months to 24 months

-Sing songs! Some great songs to sing include Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row, Row, Row your Boat, Old McDonald, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, BINGO, Baby Bumblebee,If You’re Happy and You Know It, andBaby Shark.” As your child gets older you can leave out words at the end of phrases (“…Twinkle twinkle little _____”) to see if your child can fill them in!

-Model environmental sounds like “wee, woah, uh-oh, vroom, beep-beep” while driving. Make your sounds exaggerated and silly to capture your child’s attention!

-Name things you see during your car ride! Label objects you see as you pass them by.

-Phrase “Ready, set, ____ (go)!” when you start/stop at a red light

-Make silly sounds as you drive to see if your child can imitate you

24 months to 36 months

-Continue to name things you see during your car ride! If your child labels something they see as you are driving you can expand on what they say. For instance, if your child said “truck” you can model “red truck.”

-Model simple location phrases such as “in, on, under.” For instance, “doggie inwater” or “car onroad”

-Target basic concepts:

-Model the words “open/close” and “in/out” as you open and close doors and get into or out of the car

-Model a variety of action words as you drive such as “go, stop, drive, park, turn”

-Look for and identify objects that are “big” vs. “small”

-Work on quantity concepts as you drive, such as onecloud vs. manyclouds in the

-Talk about the colors of cars around you

-Talk about the types of cars you see (e.g., semi-trucks, cars, construction vehicles)

3 years to 4 years+

-Play “I spy” to work on labeling and naming things that you see and drive past

-Model more complex adjectives and more advanced location concepts as you drive.

-Ask your child a variety of wh-questions while driving such as “Where are we going?, What are we doing?, When did we leave?, What are we doing when we reach our destination?, What is mom/dad doing?, What are we making for dinner? Why are we going grocery shopping, etc.” If your child responds with a single word see if you can give them two choices or model a longer phrase. If they use vague and non-descript language such as “this, that, right here, etc.” provide them with two choices to see if you can promote your child’s use of more descriptive language.

-Play the Grocery Storegame: Have an adult start. “…I went to the grocery store and I bought _____ (apples). See if your child can repeat the item just said and add one to it. For instance, “I went to the grocery store and I bought apples and stickers.” You can provide hints if you don’t think your child can recall what was said last. When it’s too hard start again from the beginning!

-If your child is working on speech sounds you can practice their sounds in the car! Pick several words with the target sound and say it every time you stop at a red light or every time you see a certain object or item such as a tree.

-Tell your child that you’re thinking of an object that starts with a certain sound such as “b.” See if your child can think of things as you drive that start with that letter.

-Promote appropriate grammar and sentence structure. If you notice that your child made a grammatical error model their sentence with correct grammar and sentence structure.

-Talk about letters or numbers you see on license plates

-Talk about categories (e.g., types of transportation that you pass, types of weather, types animals you see, etc.)

Questions or concerns?

If you have questions or concerns about your child’s speech and language development, please contact us at info@playworkschicago.com or 773-332-9439.

Samantha Labus, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist

Photo Credit:Sandy Millar via unsplash.com